Zambia withdraws star striker Banda from Women's AFCON for failing gender test

July 6 - Zambian captain and star Barbra Banda has been barred from the Women's Africa Cup of Nations over 'gender eligibility' issues, sparking controversy at the tournament.

His exclusion from the final drew criticism when the president of the FA (FAZ) of Zambia, Andrew Kamanga, said: "All players had to undergo gender verification, a requirement of CAF, and Unfortunately, they didn't meet the criteria set by CAF. It's a shame that we find ourselves in the tournament without our best players."

Last year, Banda was one of the stars of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, scoring goals and proving a constant threat up front, but she met Olympic gender requirements , she did not meet the criteria set by FIFA. , which apply to the Women's Africa Cup of Nations. The gap between the requirements remained unexplained.

"Everyone at home [in Zambia] was led to believe that Faz did nothing and decided on his own to send the player off," Kamanga told BBC Sport.

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"We, the federations, are obliged to carry out the tests and then we transmit the information to the Caf, and the Caf, too, tests the players if necessary in the tournament. It would therefore be unfair to turn and to say that Caf is not an integral part of everything that happened."

The striker plays for Chinese side Shanghai Shengli and trains with the Copper Queens in Morocco.

This weekend, Zambia kicked off their Women's Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a goalless draw against continental powers Cameroon and they will face Tunisia and Togo in their final two Group matches C.

The Women's AFCON doubles as a World Cup qualifier for next year's Global Final co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The four semi-finalists will automatically win their qualification tickets while the two quarter-finalists will have to face each other in the intercontinental play-offs for a place.

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